A little less than two months into his new job, Sonny Dykes failed in one of his first objectives as Cal's football coach. He couldn't find a house in Berkeley to his liking, so he expanded his search radius and staked a claim in nearby Piedmont.

That fit Dykes' requirement of finding a place close to Memorial Stadium so that his wife and two young daughters can be at practice in order to foster what the new coach hopes will be a family atmosphere for Cal football.

"I timed it last night. It took me 11 minutes" to get home on surface streets, Dykes said. "That's pretty good."

(Dykes and his family have been staying at a hotel in Emeryville and won't move into their new home until mid-February.)

The new coach has spent the majority of his time since being hired Dec. 6 on getting his coaching staff in place and recruiting.

Two of Dykes' assistants, defensive coordinator Andy Buh and defensive backs coach Randy Stewart, are returning to Cal after having worked on Tom Holmoe's staff, Buh in 2000 and 2001 and Stewart from 1997 to 2001.

As to what the new coach will earn and the length of his contract, that information has not been released, even though Dykes was hired seven weeks ago. Athletic director Sandy Barbour said university administrators have to sign off on the minutiae of the contract before it's announced.

In advance of the Feb. 6 national signing day for high school recruits, Cal has secured commitments from 22 players, two of whom graduated early and are enrolled in Berkeley this semester - quarterback Jared Goff of Marin Catholic High and kicker Matt Anderson of San Ramon Valley High.

Final recruiting push

"The next two weeks will be fast and furious," Dykes said as he sat in his office in the Simpson Center, unadorned as yet with personal touches. "Two more weeks of the contact period (and) I'll be all over the map. I've seen a good bit of our committed players."

Some of the high school recruits who committed to Cal under former coach Jeff Tedford will not be playing for Dykes.

"We've had to move on from some kids academically who we thought weren't going to be admitted," Dykes said. "We've got to be real careful about the students we bring in here. It's rigorous. It's tough. Guys have got to be well prepared. That's a good thing."

Of the 22 high school players to commit to Cal, only two were rated as four-star prospects by Scout.com, Goff and guard Cameron Hunt of Corona (Riverside County).

New crop of linemen

"I think we will have a really strong class," Dykes said. "We had to fill some needs, and I think we did that. We need offensive and defensive linemen, and we filled that. That will be the strength of this class."

In the transition from Tedford to Dykes, a few current players contemplated transferring, but after Dykes talked to them, "not one player" decided to leave.

"I talked to everyone who was considering it or on the verge, and everybody is back," Dykes said. "Players are excited. It is positive."

Dykes also said he did not encourage any of his former players at Louisiana Tech to consider following their coach to Berkeley, calling it "bad business."

In the aftermath of a 3-9 season that cost Tedford his job and ended with the biggest back-to-back defeats in school history, to Oregon and Oregon State, the atmosphere surrounding Cal football was predictably grim when Dykes took over. After recruiting, team-building is Job One for Dykes and his staff.

Accountability

"We've got to do a good job of building a true team, where guys are accountable," he said. "You can always tell how good a program is by how much the players are accountable to each other. We have to get guys invested in each other enough where they care.

"We're going to get guys playing to their potential. If we do that, we have a chance to be a pretty good football team."

While Dykes' spread passing offense doesn't typically use tight ends or fullbacks, players at those positions will be put to use if they stack up as the new staff evaluates incumbent players.

As an example, Dykes said that when he was an assistant coach at Arizona, he recruited - successfully - a tight end he called "Robby," last name Gronkowski, now with the New England Patriots.

" 'What are you doing here? You don't play tight ends,' " Dykes recalled Gronkowski as saying when the coach visited his home. "I said, 'We're going to play you.' "

So there's hope for current Cal tight end Richard Rodgers, who, at 6-feet-4 and 265 pounds, figures to create a match-up problem for defenses when he lines up as a slot receiver in the fall. So too for fullbacks, of which there are three on the current roster.

"Good, physical fullbacks who can block and catch, there'll be huge roles for them," Dykes said. "If one of our best players is a fullback, we're going to play them."

Dykes will spread his allotted 15 days of spring practice from late February to late March.

"I think the perception of Cal is stronger than I thought it would be in terms of the potential of the program and the interest level from recruits," Dykes said. "The commitment from alums and the resources are bigger and better than I thought they were. That's a positive."